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Young women and girls who are affected by punitive drug policy face unique age-related as well as gender-specific risks, barriers and rights violations that are not well recognized or responded to by policymakers or service providers. Parental consent combined with minimum age restrictions to medical treatment as well as harm reduction services create access barriers for this cohort. This article examines these issues to highlight the importance…
UNAIDS report on the global AIDS pandemic 2020 shows that women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa continue to be the most affected and accounted for 59% of all new HIV infections in the region in 2019, with 4500 adolescent girls and young women between 15 and 24 years old becoming infected with HIV every week. Young women accounted for 24% of new HIV infections in 2019, despite making up only 10% of the population in sub-Saharan Africa.
The AIDS response has taught the world the importance of protecting human rights and promoting gender equality when fighting a disease. COVID-19 has amplified that lesson. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, UNAIDS has repeated the call that governments must protect human rights and prevent and address gender-based violence—an issue that is even more vital now that lockdowns are putting women and girls at an even higher risk of intimate…
The analysis demonstrated that adolescent girls and young women with the higher vulnerability profiles, including the impact of unequal gender norms, have increased odds of negative health outcomes and experiences. The analysis calls upon tailoring community-based HIV prevention efforts by deferentially targeting/tailoring interventions and health services for sub-populations in higher versus lower HIV vulnerability profiles. Across the three…
The aim of the present study was to assess the level of self-esteem and Hope among HIV positive Adolescents across gender. The researcher considered perinatally infected Adolescent boys and girls who are HIV Positive, currently living in a HIV care and support centre.
On Zero Discrimination Day this year, UNAIDS is challenging the discrimination faced by women and girls in all their diversity in order to raise awareness and mobilize action to promote equality and empowerment for women and girls.
Across the world, gender inequality, violence, poverty and insecurity continue to stoke excessive HIV risk among women and girls, especially those in marginalized and excluded communities.
In sub-Saharan Africa, four out five new HIV infections among 15-19 year olds are in girls according to UNAIDS 2019 estimates. Surveys during 2011- 16 showed that more than half of rural women aged 15–24 in sub-Saharan Africa had been pregnant before their 18th birthday, and as recently as 2016, 40% of young women in sub-Saharan Africa and 30% in South Asia were married while still children. These examples highlight how gender power relations…
Voices from the Field features contributions from scholars and practitioners highlighting new research, thinking, and approaches to development challenges. This post is authored by Lanice C. Williams, advocacy and partnership manager, and Mark P. Lagon, chief policy officer, at Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Young women in sub-Saharan Africa remain at the epicentre of the HIV epidemic, with surveillance data indicating persistent high levels of HIV incidence. In South Africa, adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) account for a quarter of all new HIV infections. Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored and Safe (DREAMS) is a strategy introduced by the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) aimed at reducing…
In sub-Saharan Africa, adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) account for 74% of new HIV infections among people aged 15-24.1 This is roughly 360,000 AGYW a year – about 1,000 AGYW per day. AGYW experience converging social, cultural, economic, and political factors that undermine their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), which makes them vulnerable to HIV infection. In South Africa alone, about 102,000 new HIV infections occur…
Despite substantial declines in the number of new HIV infections globally, the HIV/AIDS epidemic among females ages 15-24 in select countries remains uncontrolled, with 67 percent of new infections in young people in sub-Saharan Africa occurring in adolescent girls and young women, or an estimated 280,000 new infections annually. HIV prevalence rates among female youth ages 15-24 are consistently higher than among their male peers, with…
Despite a recent fall in new infections, South Africa still has the largest HIV epidemic in the world and has not achieved the 50% reduction envisaged in its national strategic plan for 2012-16. Adolescent girls and young women are disproportionately affected by HIV, with prevalence among 20-24 year olds three times higher in women (16%) than in men (5%), and females aged 15-24 years accounting for 37% of new infections. Amid the competing…
The HIV/AIDS community is paying increasing attention to the estimated 1.8 million (uncertainty bounds 1.3 million to 2.4 million) people younger than 15 years living with HIV globally, as was evident by the focus on adolescents at the XXII International AIDS Conference in July, 2018. This attention is welcome and it is crucial to curtailing the HIV epidemic. But while age disaggregation can help elucidate the spread and impacts of the HIV…
Gendered power dynamics within couple relationships can constrain women from achieving positive sexual and reproductive health outcomes. But little is known about relationship power among adolescents, and tools to measure it are rarely validated among adolescents. We tested the Sexual Relationship Power Scale (SRPS) among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) and examined associations with select health outcomes. A 16-item adaptation of the…
Ending the AIDS epidemic among children, adolescents and young women requires ambitious targets and a Super-Fast-Track approach. Building on the successes of the Global Plan towards the elimination of new HIV infections among children by 2015 and keeping their mothers alive, UNAIDS, the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and partners launched Start Free Stay Free AIDS Free in 2016 to provide a framework for the…
In 2016, an estimated 1.5 million adolescent girls and young women were living with HIV infection in Eastern and Southern Africa, where HIV prevalence among adolescent girls and young women is more than twice that of their male peers. In this report, analysis of data from Population-based HIV Impact Assessment surveys conducted during 2015–2017 in seven countries in Eastern and Southern Africa found that the prevalence of HIV infection among…
To end the growing HIV epidemic among young women, human rights violations must be addressed. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have the potential to help, but only if political barriers are overcome and a rights-based approach is integrated. We have long known that biomedical interventions alone will not curb the HIV epidemic among young women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa. The history of the global response to HIV is ripe with…
Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) plays a central role in the preparation of young people for a safe, productive, fulfilling life in a world where HIV and AIDS, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), unintended pregnancies, gender-based violence (GBV) and gender inequality still pose serious risks to their well-being. However, despite clear and compelling evidence for the benefits of high-quality, curriculum-based CSE, few children and…
Adolescents are one sixth of the world's population and account for 6% of the world's global burden of disease and injury. Over 3,000 adolescents die every day from largely preventable causes. In 2015, the top causes of adolescent girls' included HIV/AIDS and maternal conditions. This guidance assists governments to support country implementation to improve the health of their adolescents through evidence, case studies, a summary document, a…